Page 28 of Manhunt in the Narrows
She explored that sensation, reveled in the emptiness the view and the man at her side provided. She’d survived the past couple of years off spite and anger alone, but now there was nothing but a hole where it’d slept. Because of Elias. No. Not emptiness. Something lighter that took her a few seconds to feel out. Brighter. Filling. It’d slipped in without her notice and meticulously replaced the hurt she held on to to keep everyone at arm’s length.
Hope. That was what this was. So foreign and unusual but stronger than the remnants of a lost life she’d tried holding on to for herself. That pain and betrayal she’d believed protected her were nothing but scraps compared to the solid hold Elias had offered. A lifeline she hadn’t seen until now. Where she didn’thave to shoulder the past alone and could let herself imagine a future. Dream and plan and thrive. With him.
“Wow.” Elias kept his distance, not willing to crowd her on the too-narrow trail though his massive frame threatened to tip her right over the edge.
“Yeah.” They weren’t shaken by the same view. His amazement came from their physical perspective. Hers from inside. She planted her boots. It’d be easy to let the lack of guardrails and the sheer elevation get to her, but right now, she felt as though she were flying. Free. The river tendrilled and curved below them, but she couldn’t make out any distinguishing signs of the killer. He’d managed to escape them once. She couldn’t let him get away again. Couldn’t be responsible for the devastation he would cause if she failed.
Crackling reached her ears, raising her senses on to high alert. There. A voice? Broken but there if she listened hard enough. Understanding hit. Sayles wrenched her pack free and swung it around. Diving her hand inside, she hit the solid casing of her emergency radio. “We’re out of the canyon. Radio waves can reach us here.”
Pressing the push-to-talk button, she called into the visitors’ center. They could reach Risner—or anyone else—from this elevation. “This is Ranger Green. Hello? Can you hear me?”
Stillness flooded through her and Elias as they waited, barely willing to make a noise that might drown out any response. She tried again. “Green to VC. Is anyone there? Risner? Hello?”
“Green? Copy.” For perhaps the first time ever, Risner’s nasally response flooded her with a sense of relief. “We’ve been trying to get to you for two days. We thought we’d lost you and Agent Broyles. Where the hell are you?”
Sayles closed her eyes against the drugging sensation of contact with the outside world. Nearly pressing the radio to her face, she leaned against its metal casing. “Four miles inthe Narrows, closing in on Big Spring. Damn, it’s good to hear your voice.” She’d never admit that to anyone. Ever. Least of all Risner after today. “We’re still in pursuit of the killer. Lucky to be alive after those flash floods.”
Elias silently beckoned for the radio, and she handed it off. “Risner, this is Agent Broyles. I need to speak with the agent there with you at the visitors’ center.”
“Agent Marques is here. Hold on. I’ll put you on.” Static crackled over the airwaves for more than a minute before another voice broke through. “Elias, what the hell, man. Where have you been? I’ve been trying to get a hold of you since yesterday afternoon. We’ve got reports of flash floods in the Narrows. Search and rescue is waiting for the flooding to clear so they can come in and get you. Are you all right?”
His gaze locked on hers as he raised the radio to his mouth. “That doesn’t matter. Listen, we’re closing in on this guy. Do you have any updates from your end that can help us?”
“Yeah, yeah. Just a sec. Let me get my notes.” Her partner looked as though he was about to crumple the radio’s casing as they waited. The sun had already started making its afternoon arch across the sky. They would lose daylight in the next couple of hours, and there was nowhere to camp on this trail. Not to mention a single source of light to ensure they didn’t step straight off the cliff face. “I searched the van our unsub stole from the last interstate victim, but the entire setup had been wiped down as we expected. I managed to contact the victim’s family and send them photos of the van to see if they might notice anything missing or out of place.”
Elias raised the radio again, quick and efficient before lowering it back between them. All the while refusing to take his attention off her. Sweat built at his temple, and it was then she realized how much protection the canyon had offered. Now? Now they were exposed. Vulnerable. Easy targets. “And?”
“Turns out she was an avid climber. Ropes, chalk, carabiners, the works. She was making the trip across the country to climb the national parks, including Zion.” The radio cut out. “—must’ve taken all her gear.”
Pinching the radio and raising it back to his mouth, Elias narrowed his gaze on her. “What would he want with climbing gear?”
“Zion has over two hundred and fifty documented free climbs, but none in the Narrows.” This didn’t make sense. Sayles mentally ran through the possibilities.
“There’s more.” Agent Marques—Grant—waited a beat, and Sayles’s own impatience charged to the surface. “The victim discovered by your ranger lady at the bottom of the trail. He was traveling with a group of friends from Texas. Four of them, but two days ago they’d split up to take on the trails they personally wanted to hike. Our vic went straight for the Narrows that morning. The other three came to the visitors’ center after the park had been emptied. No one had heard from him, you know, because he was dead, but what they really wanted to tell me was that our latest victim never went anywhere without his handgun.”
Sayles shook her head. “There wasn’t a handgun on the body when I found it.”
Her partner straightened. Every inch the federal agent he was supposed to be. The one she’d feared would break the last dregs of her soul if she gave him the chance. Gone was the easy smile and the banter, the warmth he’d supplied in the middle of the night with her pressed against his chest. This was the trained agent who’d vowed to find his father’s killer, and Sayles had the inclination to back away. And that lightness she’d felt a few minutes ago faltered. “Because the killer took it.”
The Hitchhiker Killer—Patrick, or whoever he was—had a gun. She turned her attention back to the river below, somehowmanaging to take an even breath as her heart threatened to beat out of her chest.
Elias and his partner’s conversation distorted into short commands and faded responses. She didn’t have the energy to follow along as pieces of this messed-up puzzle started falling into place. A stolen handgun, climbing gear, a blurred target at the end of the trail. Each seemingly dangerous enough on its own, but together? Sayles shuddered as footsteps thundered through the slight ringing in her ears.
Elias. “Grant is going to go back and talk with our forensics teams to double-check all the other vehicles our unsub stole to see if anything is missing from the victim’s bags or trunks.”
“We should keep moving. We only have a few more hours of daylight and another mile to cover before we reach Big Spring.” She didn’t have the capacity for much else, dependent on the feel of the trail under her feet, the reliability of her balance. Connection to the very park she’d given herself over to these past few months. Sayles took that initial step, but Elias’s hand threaded between her arm and rib cage.
“You good?” He studied her. His gaze raked her from head to toe. Too close. Too aware. Did he see the cracks breaking through her resolve? Or that she was on the verge of falling apart altogether? “Tell me what you need.”
She fought for her next inhale, forcing a smile. Need? She needed this case to be over. She needed to collapse into bed for the next several days and sleep. She needed a shower and food and water that hadn’t been cleaned by filtration tablets. She needed pain reliever for the aches in her body. All of it combined to tear her down to nothing, and she hated how…weak it made her feel. Useless. Her ex didn’t have to be standing right here to tell her how pathetic and needy she was being. His voice had adapted into something familiar and terrifying, her own mental critic. But worst of all? She needed Elias right there withher through whatever came next. Which she hated most of all. “Nothing a bed and a hot meal can’t fix.”
He considered her for a moment, and she was ready for him to call bullshit. To read her thoughts on her face as he had so many times before. “You’re still thinking about that turkey, aren’t you?”
She couldn’t stop her laugh.
“I can’t stop. My mouth is still watering.” Sayles didn’t wait for his response, turning back to the trail. She didn’t know what they would be facing up ahead. She just hoped she’d be enough.
Chapter Twenty-Two
